Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

86 THE FAMILY OF
massy walls have mocked the ill-conserted assaults
of hasty feudal impetuosity, whilst loudly they
resounded with the bitter taunts and jeers of excited
clansmen secure within their protecting defence.
Nor even as a mere matter of taste is the demoli-
tion of those venerable towers less to be deplored —
" - There is a power
And magic in the ruined battlement
For which the palace of the present hour
Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower."
The extensive and judicious improvements of the
twelfth earl at Eglinton, it is exceedingly pleasing
to know, were well preserved and followed out
by his immediate successor, the late earl Archibald
William, whose recent premature decease has been
so greatly regretted and lamented. The locality,
unfortunately, however, is by no means of a favour-
able nature for the purposes of landscape decoration
— the ground generally lying low and flat, being but
little elevated above the tidal waters of the Garnock
river, which here passes along its western boundary.
Nevertheless, from the great extent of plantation
and old timber trees spread over its surface, and the
generally admirable style in which the gardens and
dressed grounds are laid out, it still affords a large
extent of very agreeable and interesting walks and
paths, together with various spaces of finely shaded
and sheltered lawns, whilst the Lugdur- water, a con-
siderable stream which intersects the policies for a
couple of miles or so, and by passing close the walls of
the sumptuous modern mansion, has certainly been